weberbreuerfandomcom-20200213-history
Getting Started
This page a tutorial for all those who want to share their embarrassing stories about family members but do not have the requisite wiki skills. The main topics of this tutorial will be creating and editing pages, but will go into details about headings, tables of contents, adding pictures, etc. Starting and Basic Editing Anyone can edit any page or create a whole new page. If you do not feel comfortable creating/editing, just type what you want in to the comment box on the page you want to edit or link from and I (Todd Moore) or Mary Sue Moore will do it for you. Before creating a new page, make sure that the page does not already exist by using the "Search this wiki" box at the top right to avoid making duplicate pages. Search again, while creating new pages, it tells you if there is one with that name already, but it isn't foolproof and I don't trust it. Creating a New Page To create a new page, locate the "contribute" button. If you press it, or the arrow next to it, a drop-down menu will appear. The third item in the menu should be "Add a Page". Clicking this will open a new menu which allows you to enter the name of the page and choose a layout, Standard Layout or Blank Page. Standard Layout gives some pre-created structure to your new page, including a place to post a photo. Blank Page just creates a brand new page that allows you to create it as you want. Either way, type your text into the area on the left. Keep in mind, your changes are not saved until you hit the "Publish" button on the right. You can also see what your page looks like before you publish it by using the "Preview" button next to the "Publish" button. Publish often; this is the second time I am typing this paragraph because my browser crashed and it didn't save. Make sure the person/page you are looking for isn't named something slightly different than you expect, i.e. you want to make a Patricia Weber page. This page already exists, but it is called Patricia Ann (Breuer) Weber. If you make a new Patricia Weber page and link to that one instead of the real one, it gets confusing and problematic and then I have to find it and fix it. Editing an Existing Page You can also edit any existing page by clicking the "Edit" button at the top of the page. This will open the editing window and allow you to change anything on the page or add new information. This editing window works similarly to any word processing program, including a tool bar at the top with buttons for bold, italics, bullets, numbering, indenting, alignment (Left, Centered, Right), underline, and strike through. You may have to click the "more" button on the right of the tool bar to see these last two options. There is also an undo button in case you mess up or accidentally delete everything off of a page or something. I have set up a practice page for you to practice editing without fear of messing up a real page (click on the link earlier in this sentence). You can also edit smaller parts of a page without editing the whole page. There are "edit" links by each heading in the body of the text. This will open an editing screen for just that section instead of editing the whole page. This is useful for long pages that you don't want to have to load or scroll through all of just to edit one section. Adding Links You can add links to text by clicking the "Add link" button on the tool bar. This will open a new dialog box with two text boxes that you will type in. In the first line, you need to type the exact name of the page that you want to link to. In the second line, type the word(s) that you want to appear on the page as the link (e.g. the words "practice page" in the above paragraph). You can also select words to turn in to a link before you click the "Add link" button, but you will still have to make sure that the second line of the dialog box displays the words you want the link to say. To create the link, just press the button on the bottom-right of the window. To cancel, click the "x" at the top-right. General Wiki Theory The idea behind a wiki is to create a web of interlinked pages that one can navigate through. Each page exists on its own; there are not pages and subpages or any other hierarchy. Since there is no inherent relation between any two pages, the only way to tie pages together is to link to them from other pages. So link earlier and link often. Pages that are not linked to can still be access by typing in the proper address or by searching for them with the "Search this wiki" box. However, pages that are not linked to may not be seen as people will not know to search for them. Headings and Table of Contents You can organize your page more effectively by making use of Heading formats. These are accessed by the drop-down menu in the middle of the tool bar (in the edit screen) that says "Normal text". This drop down box allows you to turn text into a Heading. For example, the words "Headings and Table of Contents" are an example of Heading 2. This Heading allows you to create sections within a page. Headings 3, 4, and 5 allow you to create subsections within each higher section. Each of these sections and subsections is editable as described above by clicking the "edit" button beside one of them. The Table of Contents (TOC) after the opening paragraph of this page is generated automatically. It is generated when there are four or more headings of any type (e.g. two Heading 2's and two Heading 3's would generate a TOC). The TOC links to each of the headings in the page and therefore needs at least four things to link to before generating itself. The TOC then generates before the first heading. Normally the format of a wiki page has an opening paragraph(s) that gives a general overview of the topic, followed by the TOC and more detailed sections with Headings. I have set up examples of pages with and without enough headings for a TOC. Example 1 - no TOC. Example 2 - TOC. Keep in mind that in order to see the links in the TOC, you may have to hit the "show" button in the box. Page creators may want to set up their page using a different format/layout than the one described above, but it is recommended that most be layed out as described in order to keep a universal continuity and so as not to confuse people about where information is located on a page. Adding Pictures In order to add pictures to a page, you need an account with www.wikia.com. Accounts with wikia, however, are free; you only need an email address. If all else fails, email Mary Sue Moore and make her add pictures to your page. Assuming you have a free account (go to wikia.com and follow the instructions - it only requires an email address), all you have to do to add pictures to a page is to go into the edit screen and click on the "Photo" button on the right. This will bring up a window that allows you to upload a photo by hitting the "browse" button and finding where it is stored on your computer. Then it will allow you to choose the photo size, placement, caption, and text-wrapping options. You may need to play around a little to make it appear where/how you want. Keep in mind, the position of the cursor tells it where to put the picture... more or less. Other There are other options and abilities that have not been described here as you will not need most of them. One of them (for advanced users only) is the ability to create pages by using html or wiki code. This is done by clicking the "Source" tab in the editing screen. Most people will not need/want this option, but it does allow finer control over certain things.